Budget: Implementation will be the key, feel city doctors

For doctors of the National Capital Region (NCR), measures announced in the Union Budget on Wednesday to give a boost to the medical sector, have received a lot of applause but implementation of these policies would be a major challenge.

Most of the doctors also highlighted that more requires to be done by the Central government in the process of ensuring advanced medical treatment for the patients.

The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget address also mentioned of providing cheaper drugs and higher medical education, also setting a time limit for eradicating diseases like tuberculosis, measles and leprosy.

While the city doctors have hailed the announcement of these measures, they have also stated that various challenges on the ground will add to the government's difficulties.

Dr V K Monga of Indian Medical Association mentioned that even as the government has been partially successful in reducing the prices of generic drugs, it has still not been able to make the life-saving drugs cheaper for the common man.

Monga also highlighted the mismatch in quality standards between public hospitals and the private ones.

The senior doctor who has worked in Delhi government hospitals also mentioned that higher medical education in the country requires major reforms.

"I will call the announcement by the Finance Minister to be a fresh start towards reforming the medical sector in the country. For long, the medical sector has been a neglected area. Today, even in Delhi, the primary healthcare sector requires a lot of improvement. In my view, rather than focusing on tertiary healthcare sectors, thegovernment should pay more attention to the primary healthcare sectors," said Monga.

"The Indian drug industry has made a rapid progress and most of them make quality drugs. I acknowledge that certain life-saving drugs for multi drug resistant tuberculosis and medical devices like stents are extremely expensive and beyond the reach of the common man. Handling this issue will be a major challenge for thegovernment. Till the time these issues are addressed, it will not be possible for the government to eradicate deadly diseases," he added.

Dr N S Hadke, senior professor at Maulana Azad Medical College, mentioned the need to conduct higher medical examinations.

"Besides working on improving the quality of medical colleges, there must be greater improvements made in the examination structure for MD seats," said Hadke.